ARMfarm
Bare Metal Kubernetes Cluster-in-a-box
Modular multiple Arm® Cortex® 64-bit CPUs based server system running Linux and provisioned, scalable Kubernetes cluster
Modular multiple Arm® Cortex® 64-bit CPUs based server system running Linux and provisioned, scalable Kubernetes cluster
With the beginning of 2016 the first affordable ARM64 single board computers became available to the public. Enthusiasts chose them because of moderate price, comparable to X86 architecture performance and low power consumption. Soon after with support of this architecture followed the most popular Linux distributions. Next years brought popularization of application containerization. With many separate server instances running containers it was natural that it required their orchestration and Kubernetes gained popularity and is becoming de facto standard for underlying infrastructure of modern web applications, microservices etc.
ARMfarm is modular and scalable server system running on multiple Arm® Cortex® 64-bit CPUs that unites all above mentioned into single fabric. It has smart power management of compute nodes allowing you to switch off not used ones. Integrated Gigabit networking ensures fast data exchange between compute nodes and management backplane. Thanks to those features Kubernetes Cluster-in-a-box could be easily integrated into your data center to run your containerized applications while keeping TCO low.
Basis of the system is 1 height unit (1U) rackmontable chassis that has management backplane with dedicated ARM64 CPUs for Kubernetes cluster management, separate storage and instance image controller, integrated Gigabit ethernet, redundant power supply and ability to connect up to 8 compute node modules. That allows you to start small and scale up when workload increases.
Each compute node module will have:
Fully equiped chassis would give you a server with 64 CPUs (with 4-cores each) and 128-1024GB of RAM that totals to astonishing 256 cores per single 1U large rackmontable Kubernetes Cluster-in-a-box while still keeping your power requirements low!
One ARMfarm by default allows to run one managed Kubernetes cluster, but you can provision more clusters on the same hardware by just dedicating compute nodes to act as cluster master nodes.
We're still working out the details of product cost, availability, software nuances, but we hope that we interested you in getting one.
Resume of work on first version of scaled down Kubernetes baremetal cluster.
Paused all work due change of priorities.
MVP tested and proven to work.
MVP of ARMfarm is finished and ready for field tests.
Continue work on MVP.
Hardware development kit designed to allow us prototype cluster architecture.
We applied to Prototron and successfuly got into TOP58 teams.
Idea was taken from shelf and we continued working on it re-evaluation options.
First PoC prototype was built using Raspberry Pi's, but idea was left on the shelf.
ARMfarm idea was born.
We're not only creating something new, but also searching for support from potential partners:
Every great project can't succeed with proper team and ARMfarm has the best team! We unite many years of experience in various fields for a common cause.
